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The June 27th lava flow continues advancing eastward, with lava plunging into another ground crack

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This wide view, looking west, shows the position of the June 27th flow front relative to the nearby Kaohe Homesteads subdivision. The front of the flow is moving through thick forest, and its position can be seen by the plumes of smoke above the center of the photograph. Near these active surface flows, there was also steaming from a ground crack, resulting from lava deep in the crack. The farthest point of this steaming was 1.7 km (1.1 miles) west of the boundary of the Kaohe Homesteads subdivision.

The June 27th lava flow remains active at its leading edge, where lava is spreading out slowly into thick forest and also plunging into one of the many deep ground cracks that form Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone. This Quicktime video shows the activity near the eastern edge of the flow. This swiftly moving stream of lava was about 2 meters (yards) wide, and was visible down to about 30 meters (100 feet) depth in the crack, where it disappeared from view.

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The Quicktime video above begins with a view of the steaming ground crack, where lava is moving deep within the crack. As the view rotates west, lava can be seen on the surface burning thick forest. Finally, the camera focuses on the eastern edge of the flow, where lava is plunging into the deep ground crack. This swiftly moving stream of lava was about 2 meters (yards) wide, and was visible down to about 30 meters (100 feet) depth in the crack, where it disappeared from view.

This CFLHD/HDOT partnership has already resulted in much-needed improvements to 40.27 out of 45.97 miles to the Daniel K. Inouye Highway. This is something everyone involved can be proud of. However, the HDOT and CFLHD need to do a better job engaging the public. These
agencies have done a poor job thus far. I had to get updates through the project engineer between 2004-2011 because the CFLHD’s Daniel K. Inouye Highway project website was never updated.

Dave Gedeon, the said project engineer up until late 2011, then passed me off to Mike Will. He and Mark Lloyd provided updates up until mid-2013. Then he stated I had to go through the Hawaii Department of Transportation public affairs office for any additional updates. I had to go through other sources since then, as its nearly impossible to get any response from the HDOT public affairs office.

I escalated my complaints to Anthony Foxx, the Secretary of Transportation and Gregory Nadeau, the acting FHWA administrator, recently. Mr. Nadeau reiterated that I should go through the HDOT public affairs office and told me the CFLHD’s Daniel K. Inouye Highway website would be updated on a regular basis.

I highly doubt the CFLHD or HDOT will follow through on Mr. Nadeau’s promises, which is why I am writing this commentary. The CFLHD and HDOT need to do a better job engaging the public’s participation in these projects.

Map showing the June 27th flow in Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone as of September 1, 2014.

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The area of the flow as mapped on August 29 is shown in pink, while widening and advancement of the flow as of September 1 is shown in red. The only place where lava significantly widened the margin was at the distal end of the flow, where lava in the forest had reached 12.6 km (7.8 miles) from the vent. Most lava at the far end of the flow, however, was cascading into a deep ground crack (brown line), which was steaming at the surface. The most distant steam, which may represent the leading end of the lava in the crack, was 12.9 km (7.9 miles) from the vent and 1.7 km (1.1 miles) from the east boundary of the Wao Kele o Puna Forest Reserve. All older lava flows (1983–2014) are shown in gray; the yellow line within the flow marks the lava tube.